What do you think?
Rate this book
The Secret Recipes
How do you catch lightning in a measuring cup?
Dominique Ansel is the creator of the Cronut™, the croissant-doughnut hybrid that has taken the world by storm. But he’s no one-hit wonder. Classically trained in Paris, responsible for a four-star kitchen in New York, and now the proprietor of New York’s highest rated bakery, Ansel has become a modern-day Willy the creator of wildly creative, extraordinarily delicious, and unbelievably popular desserts.
Now, in his hotly anticipated debut cookbook, Ansel shares the secret to transforming the most humble ingredients into the most extraordinary, tempting, and satisfying pastries imaginable. Dominique The Secret Recipes reveals the stories and recipes behind his most sought-after creations and teaches lovers of dessert everywhere how to make magic in their own kitchens.
Dominique Ansel is the creator of the Cronut™, the croissant-doughnut hybrid that has taken the world by storm. But he’s no one-hit wonder. Classically trained in Paris, responsible for a four-star kitchen in New York, and now the proprietor of New York’s highest rated bakery, Ansel has become a modern-day Willy the creator of wildly creative, extraordinarily delicious, and unbelievably popular desserts.
Now, in his hotly anticipated debut cookbook, Ansel shares the secret to transforming the most humble ingredients into the most extraordinary, tempting, and satisfying pastries imaginable. Dominique The Secret Recipes reveals the stories and recipes behind his most sought-after creations and teaches lovers of dessert everywhere how to make magic in their own kitchens.
375 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2014
188 people are currently reading
679 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
December 28, 2014
What a great cookbook. The first half is filled with gorgeous photographed pastries and as you read the stories behind the creation of each dessert, you are thinking, "I'm glad they didn't put actual recipes in this book, since I'd never make any of these things..."
Then you keep on reading; about half way through you start thinking, "Hmmmm, maybe I wish Ansel DID put in the recipes - maybe I'd make some of these things..."
A few pages later, voila! The "secret" recipes are revealed in order of difficulty preparing them. It takes a lot these days for me to go beyond looking at great and inspiring cookbooks to wanting to make what I see.
I bought a copy at half.com about thirty seconds after re-reading this library book a second time!
Some decadent sweets are definitely in my future.
Then you keep on reading; about half way through you start thinking, "Hmmmm, maybe I wish Ansel DID put in the recipes - maybe I'd make some of these things..."
A few pages later, voila! The "secret" recipes are revealed in order of difficulty preparing them. It takes a lot these days for me to go beyond looking at great and inspiring cookbooks to wanting to make what I see.
I bought a copy at half.com about thirty seconds after re-reading this library book a second time!
Some decadent sweets are definitely in my future.
August 28, 2020
To wonder freely without putting an idea into action is but to daydream. All miracles take work.
The book is really two books, so I’ll be reviewing it in two parts. The first part is a sort of memoir of Ansel’s creative process, the use of nostalgia, creativity, experience, and the arbitrary input of chance. If there’s a focus, it is in taking familiar and homey things and raising them up—peeps, s’mores, cheesecakes, popcorn.
The recipes are divided into basic, intermediate, and advanced. Every recipe except the first—hot chocolate—requires patience; most involve several steps, of which the first must be taken a day or more in advance. Even the second recipe, the chocolate-chip cookies, are an overnight process. They get more advanced from there.
Ansel started in France, and moved to the United States, and then started his own bakery in New York City; so his memoir covers inspiration from his French upbringing and from the culture shock of New York and the United States.
Advice is based on history rather than possibility.
Much of his advice on living reminds me of Chance the Gardener. It is advice based on experience in a field that is as old as the human race, a field that allows no bullshit. Because it’s old, it can sound trite; because it’s unforgiving, it’s better advice than most.
He sees baking much as a programmer sees unwritten code: as series of nested possibilities.
Experience and expertise help us transform from appreciators to creators who see endless possibility.
No commentary-heavy cookbook would be complete without at least one spurious historical fact. Ansel enters the space age with his by repeating the urban legend about pens vs. pencils in space, that because pens “no longer worked without gravity to pull down the ink. Engineers started to develop specialized space pens… But the simpler solution, of course, was just to use a pencil.”
In fact, the reason NASA bought the Space Pen (they didn’t develop it) is because they originally used pencils. They knew from experience that pencils are dangerous in space capsules. They need to be sharpened, releasing graphite dust and wood shavings. The former shorts electrical connections, the latter blocks switches that need to be immediately responsive. Both can irritate astronaut’s eyes, which itself is a danger when reaction times are important. Pencil tips can break, and, because of zero gravity, literally float anywhere in the cabin eventually reaching the one location they’ll do the most damage.
Resorting to a pencil in a space cabin because it’s “the simpler solution” is exactly the opposite of all of the advice Ansel gives elsewhere in the book: that great baking requires patience and dedication, “one road and no shortcuts”, and avoiding the temptations of “an easier path”.
Because the results of that shortcut are likely to be a fiery failure.
This is not the kind of cookbook I would normally get for myself. While the chocolate-pecan cookie looks amazing, and in fact they all look amazing, they are also almost all involved recipes many of which require special kitchen utensils.
But I’m definitely looking forward to trying some of the advanced recipes for butter-layered pastries; his instructions are very specific, mentioning both time and what the doughs should look like. As the one exception to my avoidance of complex cookbooks, this looks to be a great choice.
The second part of the book is, of course, the recipes. The first recipe I made were the Chocolate Pecan Cookies. They’re gluten-free, although it seems to be less trying to make them healthier than trying to remove any flour that keeps them from being gooey. The recipe requires making the batter the night before and letting sit in the fridge overnight, and baking the cookies the next day. It is otherwise a very simple recipe, and the cookies are amazing. The recipe itself is a little odd. The night-before part involves using a double boiler; the next sentence made little sense until I realized he was explaining how to make a double boiler if you don’t have one. The instructions also say to put the dough into a shallow baking dish, covered in plastic wrap, overnight; by morning, the dough was solid enough it was difficult to get it out of the baking dish to break off the pieces for cookies. Next time I make it I expect I’ll just wrap it in plastic wrap as in other recipes of this type, rather than put it in a baking dish.
Update: that worked perfectly.
Recipe number two were the meringues, the “Mini-Me’s”. It’s another “beginner” recipe. Among the suggested flavorings was cinnamon, so I used a quatre épices that I’m fairly sure contains cinnamon, and it was a phenomenal flavoring for meringue candies. Ansel’s meringues use a lot of sugar, a little over a half cup of confectioner’s sugar per egg white. Meringues are usually pretty easy to make—just whip up some egg whites in a stand mixer, adding a little sugar and flavoring. Ansel’s recipe is for “Swiss meringue” which means first whisking the egg/sugar mixture over a pot of simmering water until it hits 113°F. I suspect that this is why these meringues had a more uniform density than normal.
Oddly, the side notes tell us not to “worry about over whipping the meringue. It won’t affect the final outcome of the product, so better to overwhip than underwhip.” But in the step where we fold in the flavoring, the side note is that “The more you work the meringue, the looser its structure becomes… a loose meringue will become flat and dense.” What he doesn’t explain is why, then, we don’t just add the flavoring during the whipping stage, as most recipes I’ve seen call for.
Next time I make the recipe I’ll probably cut corners and add the flavoring at the end of whipping. I also already cut corners by not using an “uncut piping bag”. Another of his side notes is that “when making meringue, it is very important to use clean tools”. But I only have one, reusable, piping bag, which I clean after every use. It did not appear to harm the final product.
In fact, reading this recipe now I remember that I cut corners a lot. To hold the parchment paper flat on the baking sheet, we are told to “pipe a small dot of meringue under the parchment” at each corner, and use that as glue. This, however, would have meant having to clean the baking sheet afterward. The weight of the meringue appeared to hold the parchment flat just fine, although I did have to be careful when turning the sheet (it gets turned three times during baking) that the parchment remained aligned on the sheet, or the meringues would have fallen onto the floor of the oven.
Recipe number three: cotton-soft cheesecake. When I told a friend that the filling was basically just ricotta cheese and whipped cream, she said “a cannolo, then.” And that’s very much what the cheesecake part of the recipe tastes like, the filling of cannoli. It is a very light-feeling cheesecake.
This is an “intermediate” recipe, and it starts to use more tools. He calls for an Ateco 805 tip for the piping bag; I used an 806. I assume that the nearness of the numbers means they’re very close.
The recipe makes ten individual servings in 3-inch ring molds. I don’t have ten 3-inch ring molds, and I wasn’t about to buy them for an untested recipe. I probably still won’t: I made some 3-inch rings out of wax paper (3-inch diameter means a circumference of about 10 inches, assuming some overlap), which worked fine and probably made the unfolding easier. His instructions are to “warm the molds by rubbing your hands around the sides until the cheesecakes fall out” then immediately “put them all back in the freezer for a few minutes”. I just tore the wax paper and unrolled it from the cheesecake, which meant not having to warm them up in the first place.
His subtitle for this is “cheesecake for people who don’t usually like cheesecake”, and that may be true. But I like cheesecake a lot, and this was a great cheesecake. It was, pretty much, cheesecake brulée, as the final step is to sprinkle sugar over the top and torch it. He has us do this three times, for a layered brulée “that can stay crunchy even after several hours in the refrigerator”.
It also stays crunchy after a night in the refrigerator; last night I took one of the cheesecakes out of the freezer, bruléed it, and put it in the fridge for breakfast. Cheesecake, after all, is a great breakfast.
I can see myself using the various parts of this cheesecake in different recipes. And that’s a lot of what this book is about: building up techniques and ideas from beginner to advanced, to improve your skill in the kitchen. It’s a fun book.
Wine should be drunk, chocolates eaten, and new clothing worn.
February 12, 2024
This was pure food porn, armchair chef stuff, at least for me. Loved the first half of the book with the stories of how the recipes came to be and the thoughts behind taking something classic and updating it. The photos were fun, too. (And gorgeous.). I think Ansel has a skewed sense of what a "easy" or "advanced" recipe is, though. I would guess the "easy" ones definitely are doable if one planned well. The Intermediate ones are definitely projects, and the "advanced" ones are major undertakings ... as in "in your dreams." Still, there's a lot to glean about techniques and the how/why just by reading them.
August 8, 2017
Hands down my favorite dessert book. Dominique's stories were inspiring and the recipes are amazing!
December 4, 2021
i think he the best pasrty chef, all his recipes are magnificent
September 6, 2021
Perfection!
I can only hope to advance my pastry skills like Dominique. I have made Kouign Amman before, but I must try DKA, Dominique’s Kouign Amman. I love the passion that went into the creation of this book. It’s more than recipes, but techniques.
I can only hope to advance my pastry skills like Dominique. I have made Kouign Amman before, but I must try DKA, Dominique’s Kouign Amman. I love the passion that went into the creation of this book. It’s more than recipes, but techniques.
January 10, 2015
Ansel is very interesting; he expands past the food and talks about life (for example, how even though saving the best for last sounds good in theory, we should seize upon the opportunity before it's gone).
He describes the food first and lumps all the recipes at the back of the book; I personally don't like that, as I would like to reference both side by side, but that's just me nitpicking.
I like that he doesn't dwell on Cronuts; that's not all that he has, and it's not even close to the most inventive, whimsical creations he talks about here.
I like that he has beginning, intermediate and advanced recipes; I assumed that this would contain solely complex recipes, as the bakery is known for its intricate work and because his descriptions at the front of the book are only of the delicate, time-consuming ones. I really appreciate that he has both volume and metric measurements (I know I should use metric, but I get so lazy when I have to locate both batteries and my scale). His recipes are very detailed and clear, so they're easy to follow.
I don't see myself making anything from this book anytime soon, but it's a great cookbook to peruse if you're bored with your baked goods.
He describes the food first and lumps all the recipes at the back of the book; I personally don't like that, as I would like to reference both side by side, but that's just me nitpicking.
I like that he doesn't dwell on Cronuts; that's not all that he has, and it's not even close to the most inventive, whimsical creations he talks about here.
I like that he has beginning, intermediate and advanced recipes; I assumed that this would contain solely complex recipes, as the bakery is known for its intricate work and because his descriptions at the front of the book are only of the delicate, time-consuming ones. I really appreciate that he has both volume and metric measurements (I know I should use metric, but I get so lazy when I have to locate both batteries and my scale). His recipes are very detailed and clear, so they're easy to follow.
I don't see myself making anything from this book anytime soon, but it's a great cookbook to peruse if you're bored with your baked goods.
March 29, 2015
On page 98 of this cookbook is a recipe that is called :"What Purple Tastes Like" -Purple Tart. This is a definitive dessert choice because it is comprised of blackberries, dark plums & concord grapes. Just the thought of those 3 fruits together makes me think; indeed this is what purple tastes like. Most of the recipes in this book were given there own story as well as recipe. The photography made you want to lick the pages of the of this cookbook. There were tons of fun recipes that looked like zany works of art. There is even an "Angry Birds" dessert.
This is a must have for anyone who is an avid baker.
This is a must have for anyone who is an avid baker.
December 21, 2015
This book is a delight. Not only are the recipes great, but there are articles about various desserts at the beginning which are whimsically written and offer interesting perspectives. Read the book for these, if not for the recipes.
April 15, 2015
Great essays and fantastic looking recipes. Can't wait to bake some stuff this weekend.
January 25, 2019
Ansel, known widely as the creator of the cronut, runs a popular bakery in NYC, and his stated goal of this book is to teach not recipes but the ability to create good and hopefully innovative pastry. Ansel starts with a series of short essays on a given pastry like the macaron, but the essays are really designed to communicate his ideas. One of the key ideas he communicates is that some recipes allow shortcuts and others do not. Pastry is often in the later category. Another lesson, everything has its time when it is at its best; serve it then. Food is connected to memory and experiences.
Pictures are lively and vibrant making you want to gobble up the vivid treat on the page. He spends the first half of the book explaining his creative process through short essays and vibrant photos. The recipes are clearly written with measurements in cups and grams. Recipes indicate if they are gluten free, skill level (though some beginner recipes seem too difficult for beginners like the hollowed out egg peeps and the caramelized apples), time and yield. Generally, the ingredients used are accessible to most cooks but tools can be more difficult. Ansel frequently provides a number for a piping tip, asks for a mold for a cookie or uses hollowed out eggs and egg scissors. Some recipes are very complicated with multiple parts, and they can be very time consuming.
This seems to be a cookbook for people with lots of baking tools and experience who want to venture past the usual dessert offerings. The finished products look amazing but I think I’ll have to wait until I get to NYC and can buy them.
What Ansel very powerfully captures in this cookbook is that cooking is a gift to the eater (or it can be), and he challenges the cook to think just what do you want to invest in that gift? If you cook from this cookbook, you need to be ready to invest a lot
Pictures are lively and vibrant making you want to gobble up the vivid treat on the page. He spends the first half of the book explaining his creative process through short essays and vibrant photos. The recipes are clearly written with measurements in cups and grams. Recipes indicate if they are gluten free, skill level (though some beginner recipes seem too difficult for beginners like the hollowed out egg peeps and the caramelized apples), time and yield. Generally, the ingredients used are accessible to most cooks but tools can be more difficult. Ansel frequently provides a number for a piping tip, asks for a mold for a cookie or uses hollowed out eggs and egg scissors. Some recipes are very complicated with multiple parts, and they can be very time consuming.
This seems to be a cookbook for people with lots of baking tools and experience who want to venture past the usual dessert offerings. The finished products look amazing but I think I’ll have to wait until I get to NYC and can buy them.
What Ansel very powerfully captures in this cookbook is that cooking is a gift to the eater (or it can be), and he challenges the cook to think just what do you want to invest in that gift? If you cook from this cookbook, you need to be ready to invest a lot
August 20, 2021
Heavenly Desserts
What makes this one different? This book is a love letter to the making of a dessert. The first thing it talks about is time. The time you spend to make a perfect dessert. When is the best time to eat that perfect dessert. I had no idea some should be eaten almost as soon as they come out of the oven and others should sit for a day before eating. And the time to take to prepare certain tools used in the dessert making process. The first 19% of the book are short (1-2 page) personal stories about how a dessert came to be in the Chef's bakery. The corresponding recipe and detailed instructions on how to make the dessert are in the last 80% of the book. No skimping on instructions. Dessert making is clearly a passion of the Chef, and this passionate love of his recipes comes across clearly in the book.
What makes this one different? This book is a love letter to the making of a dessert. The first thing it talks about is time. The time you spend to make a perfect dessert. When is the best time to eat that perfect dessert. I had no idea some should be eaten almost as soon as they come out of the oven and others should sit for a day before eating. And the time to take to prepare certain tools used in the dessert making process. The first 19% of the book are short (1-2 page) personal stories about how a dessert came to be in the Chef's bakery. The corresponding recipe and detailed instructions on how to make the dessert are in the last 80% of the book. No skimping on instructions. Dessert making is clearly a passion of the Chef, and this passionate love of his recipes comes across clearly in the book.
August 27, 2021
I haven't cooked any of the recipes in the book. Yet. I read it mostly to feel how the chef got his inspirations from his creations and wasn't disappointed. Most of the chapters are short but meaningful. He explained his experience growing up in France and using that to innovate being in NY. He mentions his struggles and dislikes and how he grew to overtake and adjust from them. It's amazing and interesting how his mind works. The optimism and the drive. It's there. I can see how the desserts and pastries he's made will always be different and new since he's always trying to figure out how to make it so.
July 9, 2018
Warning: reading this book will make you hungry!! The photographs are stunning and the descriptions of food are incredible. To my surprise I found a lot of insight into the world of creativity and art tucked away in the pages of this book. Never thought I'd be taking notes on creativity from a cook book with the mind of applying them to the craft of writing. But it was a delightful surprise and I will be going back this book again in the future to pull out more snippets of wisdom.
August 25, 2017
Beautiful and inspiring.....
This cookbook is just gorgeous! The stories about these recipes were inspiring. I love reading about the chef and not just getting the recipes. I also loved the gluten free tag on some of the recipes as I have Celiac Disease. The pictures helped in recognizing what recipes are supposed to look like at different stages of the recipe.
This cookbook is just gorgeous! The stories about these recipes were inspiring. I love reading about the chef and not just getting the recipes. I also loved the gluten free tag on some of the recipes as I have Celiac Disease. The pictures helped in recognizing what recipes are supposed to look like at different stages of the recipe.
February 18, 2024
It’s so interesting to read how Ansel came up with his recipes and how he looks at the world through the eyes of a baker. It’s intense to see some of the advanced recipes take 3 pages of prep, baking, and assembly over many days. However you cannot rush perfection. It gives you time to learn and grow as a baker and get the difficult techniques down. I cannot wait to start baking!
November 12, 2025
I Love This Book!
Even if you don't ever use these recipes, there is so much information about techniques that can be used in other baking. The recipes are terrific and easy to read. Very well explained. But even more are the pictures of the food. They are beautiful! The whole book start to finish was absolutely fantastic.
Even if you don't ever use these recipes, there is so much information about techniques that can be used in other baking. The recipes are terrific and easy to read. Very well explained. But even more are the pictures of the food. They are beautiful! The whole book start to finish was absolutely fantastic.
November 16, 2025
The photography superb, the writing is thought provoking and inspirational. That is if you don't cook. If you are a cook - or a foodie - the philosophy, sharing and encouragement are a bonus. Add to that, recipes that cover a significant portion of the book, it is a perfect addition to a personal library or as a gift.
May 2, 2018
Some of the essays are intriguing.
September 18, 2018
Thanks
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 16, 2018
Some good quality photos and some pointless text that was somehow supposed to make the author seem deep. Not much of a recipes book either.
February 27, 2019
I fell in love with the first part of the book, but I believe that the way in which the recipes are presented - in the second part - is a bit difficult to grasp.
September 30, 2020
Amazed !!!
November 22, 2020
I walked away with three challenging recipes to try!
May 22, 2023
Wow. Would love tasting these.
April 6, 2024
Great book, and I have it now.
September 29, 2024
short essays on food, cooking, and desserts followed by tasty-looking recipes
March 23, 2015
It doesn’t happen all that often but when it does, it takes your breath away!
The latest cook and bakery book to arrive is Dominique Ansel’s The Secret Recipes, creator of the world famous Cronut - published in the UK in March by Murdoch Books. For those who haven’t heard of this delightful delicacy it’s a rather ingenious cross between a croissant and a doughnut and although I’ve never had the chance to eat one, they do look incredibly tempting. An ideal combination meal of breakfast and brunch, lines form every morning at Dominique’s New York bakery to buy them. Dominique includes a home version in his book in the advanced section, not the ones on offer in New York – I am yet to attempt it!
Let’s not mess about here; this is without doubt a beautiful book and one that will take pride of place on my bookshelf for years to come. The Secret Recipes is one of those books that oozes quality and I knew it was going to be a good book before I’d had the opportunity to open the cover and turn to the first page, it just feels right, it looks right! A go to book full of irresistible recipes and must bakes, the book takes into consideration three levels of home baker – beginner, intermediate and advanced so there’s something here for everyone and something for the beginner and intermediate to aspire to.
The one thing this book does – and I’ll certainly testify to this – is make you want to bake immediately. You’ll devour the recipes, make a few notes on a shopping pad and rush out to buy ingredients for your first attempt! That’s exactly what happened to me on Saturday! I am that man! Once I’d finished my gym session I headed to my local superstore and bought the ingredients required to make chocolate pecan cookies.
One of the interesting things about this book are the notes accompanying each recipe. Dominique encourages you to try new things and if something isn’t working with a recipe; don’t be afraid to try something different, the instructions guide you through each process from beginning to end in simple steps. The recipes are easy to follow and set out in such a way that as long as you read the recipe before you begin, gather everything you need then you won’t go far wrong!
http://www.milorambles.com/2015/02/20...
The latest cook and bakery book to arrive is Dominique Ansel’s The Secret Recipes, creator of the world famous Cronut - published in the UK in March by Murdoch Books. For those who haven’t heard of this delightful delicacy it’s a rather ingenious cross between a croissant and a doughnut and although I’ve never had the chance to eat one, they do look incredibly tempting. An ideal combination meal of breakfast and brunch, lines form every morning at Dominique’s New York bakery to buy them. Dominique includes a home version in his book in the advanced section, not the ones on offer in New York – I am yet to attempt it!
Let’s not mess about here; this is without doubt a beautiful book and one that will take pride of place on my bookshelf for years to come. The Secret Recipes is one of those books that oozes quality and I knew it was going to be a good book before I’d had the opportunity to open the cover and turn to the first page, it just feels right, it looks right! A go to book full of irresistible recipes and must bakes, the book takes into consideration three levels of home baker – beginner, intermediate and advanced so there’s something here for everyone and something for the beginner and intermediate to aspire to.
The one thing this book does – and I’ll certainly testify to this – is make you want to bake immediately. You’ll devour the recipes, make a few notes on a shopping pad and rush out to buy ingredients for your first attempt! That’s exactly what happened to me on Saturday! I am that man! Once I’d finished my gym session I headed to my local superstore and bought the ingredients required to make chocolate pecan cookies.
One of the interesting things about this book are the notes accompanying each recipe. Dominique encourages you to try new things and if something isn’t working with a recipe; don’t be afraid to try something different, the instructions guide you through each process from beginning to end in simple steps. The recipes are easy to follow and set out in such a way that as long as you read the recipe before you begin, gather everything you need then you won’t go far wrong!
http://www.milorambles.com/2015/02/20...
February 18, 2015
I was really interested in reading this book because I love food, and I love making food. I have tried a version of the cronut and I was curious as to how to make it.
I quite liked reading this one as there are a few chapters that feature stories about how Dominique Ansel came up with the ideas of some of his creations. There are also a tonne of pictures that look amazing.
The recipes are really easy to follow as well. They're classed as beginner, intermediate and advanced recipes so if you need to, you can start at the beginner's stuff and work your way up to advanced. There are also a lot of very clear instructions, so that you can know what you're doing each step of the way.
I enjoyed reading through The Secret Recipes and this is definitely one I will be adding to my collection of recipe books.
I quite liked reading this one as there are a few chapters that feature stories about how Dominique Ansel came up with the ideas of some of his creations. There are also a tonne of pictures that look amazing.
The recipes are really easy to follow as well. They're classed as beginner, intermediate and advanced recipes so if you need to, you can start at the beginner's stuff and work your way up to advanced. There are also a lot of very clear instructions, so that you can know what you're doing each step of the way.
I enjoyed reading through The Secret Recipes and this is definitely one I will be adding to my collection of recipe books.
Read
June 9, 2015This book is way too daunting for the beginner baker. Half the book is stories about the recipes & the other half are recipes split into beginner, intermediate, & advanced. After I started to read this book yesterday cover-to-cover, I then skimmed to the recipes in the back as I love to browse cookbooks and look at food porn. But I started to get overwhelmed thinking about these recipes that take multiple days to prepare & many kitchen gadgets I do not own. Even the beginner recipe of hot cocoa calls for cocoa paste- I don't even know where to find that! Before I knew it, last night I was having nightmares literally about this cookbook and all the pressure I placed on myself to become an amateur pastry chef. I woke up and immediately pulled out my bookmark and rested it with the other cookbooks for another day when I feel more brave.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews